Bonkers Blog November 2014

It is very obvious that Bexley council has stirred up a hornet’s nest with its Splash Park
closure proposal. My Sunday blogs do not generally attract many readers until Monday morning but
yesterday proved to be the busiest day on Bonkers since the 15th July.

Perhaps it is just me but I don’t get on with Facebook, I find it to be an unnavigable
mess and avoid it if I can, however the existence of the Splash Park Facebook
page compelled several visits yesterday. It was clearly very busy with frequent
additions but unless I am missing something it doesn’t tell you where the new
stuff is; but I nevertheless learned quite a lot.

Various good points have been made; Bexley’s Health and Wellbeing Board,
chaired by council leader Teresa O’Neill (pictured below) has acknowledged that the borough has a serious obesity problem
but advocates fewer opportunities for taking exercise.

I have the impression from Facebook and
Arthur Pewty that
some people are optimistic about deflecting Bexley council from its chosen path but
unless someone can find some sort of legal or statutory requirement I am not so
sure. I have watched Bexley council very closely for more than five years and
have to say that some councillors are very nasty people indeed. Totally self-interested and inflexible. As I have seen more than once, expose them, annoy them or
simply criticise them and they will make up some story and ask the police to arrest you.

Probably cabinet Member Alex Sawyer is not cast in that mould but his boss certainly
is. Council leader O’Neill is ruthless and during the past five years
Bexley council, despite its ‘Listening to you’ slogan has listened to almost no one.
Every time the detailed responses to consultations have been published I have
gone through them step by step to see which ideas may have been adopted and you don’t need all your fingers to count them.

Abolishing school crossing patrols was dropped almost as soon as councillor
Peter Craske put forward the idea, plans to charge for admission to the
Belvedere Splash Park (but not Danson’s funnily enough) have been dropped twice and Bexley Historical Society managed to stop the
borough’s historical archives being dumped in a cupboard in Bromley by coming up
with
a more acceptable scheme which would save just as much money.
Why hadn’t Bexley council thought of it? Beyond those things Bexley council has
shown itself to be a dictatorship.

A Freedom of Information request last year revealed that in the previous five years Bexley council had
rejected every single one
of 49 complaints about councillors from a member of the public. They consider
themselves to be infallible and beyond criticism. When 2,219 residents signed a petition against the excessive
salaries paid to the top brass (6th highest pay in the country at the time) the council refused to even think about it. In the bin it went.

The group
that ran the Howbury Centre very successfully for years were shown the door when
a commercial group with no money, a County Court Judgement against them and next to no experience
came along. The group included a former Conservative councillor. The residents of Slade Green complained vigorously but to no avail.

The Danson Festival has gone and the grants to Hall Place and Danson House are on the way out.
In blue Bexley money counts, people don’t.

One of the Facebook commentators said the council should be voted out of office
but the chance to do that disappeared six months ago. In any case the people
most affected cannot vote Teresa O’Neill out of office as they have done what
they can already. The north is already solidly Labour. Bexley Tories can deny it all
they like but they spend their money where their core vote is. Extensive new
CCTV systems in Crayford and Bexley but none in Belvedere or Thamesmead where
there was another murder just a week ago.
Extensive regeneration in Bexleyheath (twice!), Sidcup, Welling and Northumberland Heath but they
won’t even take action against the eyesore which is Abbey Wood.
Can you imagine that hanging around for five years in Bexley village?

I think you can be certain that Bexley council will not spend any of its own
money on retaining a water facility in Belvedere. The only chance of success
other than an unlikely legal or statutory route is if the money can be scrounged from elsewhere.

But don’t let my cynicism get you down. Put up the posters and march on the
Civic Offices with pitchforks and flaming torches if necessary. Teresa O’Neill and
her cohorts understand nothing less.

When
Arthur Pewty said that nearly four years ago, Teresa O’Neill wanted me
(yes me, not him) put in jail; obviously no
knowledge of literature, not a clue about metaphors and no idea of what
democracy is supposed to be. That piece of idiocy probably cost almost as much
as the Splash Park to resolve although the bill fell on the police. Did you know
that the police spent £14,000 forensically examining councillor Peter Craske’s computer after
a load of criminal obscenities about me somehow went up his phone
line? He didn’t do it of course, oh dear no. Innocence personified.

Maybe if I keep up the pessimism Bexley Tories will think it is worth £350,000
to make me look an idiot.

The next public ‘Save our Splash Park’ meeting will be held
on Tuesday 11th November at 19:30 in the Royal Standard public house, 39 Nuxley
Road. (In the Conservatory.)